


The Weathervane: Rider Tegan Oldbrine

by hermitknut



Series: In Messenger Green [1]
Category: Green Rider Series - Kristen Britain
Genre: Gen, Reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-12-14 03:10:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11774277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hermitknut/pseuds/hermitknut
Summary: The Green Rider Corps is many things, but it's not forever.





	The Weathervane: Rider Tegan Oldbrine

Tegan whistled absently as she rubbed Rooster down. The mare was sleepy today, she thought, but then they had had a long ride the day before.

(‘Rooster?’ Garth had said, scrunching up his forehead. ‘You are aware that that is a _female_ horse?’

‘How do you tell?’ Tegan had replied, with such convincing earnestness that her new acquaintance had fumbled with words for almost a minute trying to explain. Then she had started laughing.)

It was a clear day, though night would bring rain and then a cloudy morning, and if Tegan let her focus wander right to the edge of its reach she could taste a snowfall coming.

‘It’ll be cold soon,’ she informed her horse quietly, her voice matter of fact. Saying the thought aloud always helped her to be more certain of it. And she wanted to enjoy having it while she could.

After she’d finished with Rooster, Tegan elected to take a walk around the keep. It was her afternoon off, and she was heading down to the town with Dale and Fergal later, but for now she had no plans. She got out of the stables and then meandered past the training grounds, not planning her directions as such but picking what she felt like as she felt like it.

She had, like Karigan, grown up mostly in Corsa – but she had travelled more often with her father’s trade, frequently crossing the border into Rhovanny and back. She missed the peculiarly specific busyness of Corsa, the hub of merchant trade that had an urgency and a wildness to it that she never saw in Sacor City. The capital was beautiful, no doubt, and she loved Winding Way and all her friends there. But Corsa was home.

Home, and her parents, and her two sisters and three brothers and all her cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents… well, they weren’t all in Corsa. Some of the family was in Rhovanny, and others in Wayman Province. But most were in Corsa. And her mother had promised her a party when she got there.

Tegan’s powers of prediction were limited to the weather, but somewhere deep inside she had a conviction of a different sort – that this would be her last winter as a Green Rider.

Spring would be a good time to return to Corsa. The sea-trade would be speeding up again, the city starting to move back outdoors. If she had the chance to send a letter ahead, half the family could be there. They’d celebrate.

And then she’d be back to learning the business – refreshing her memory, really – and building that business for herself. As eldest sibling, she was expected to inherit and run the business, and, in the middle of a cheerfully squabbling family, look after all of them as well. It had seemed a bit of a dull prospect when she had been growing up, but now, with four years of Rider Corps behind her, she was rather looking forward to it. It sounded like her kind of challenge. And she had missed them.

The Rider Corps was family, would always be family, in a way no one else could replicate. But that was also true for her blood kin. She felt privileged to be able to have both.

She’d looped back around the grounds now and was headed back towards the main entrance and the barracks. Maybe she’d read that book she’d borrowed off Mara.

Oh, there were rumours going around about new lengths of service in the Green Riders, and more people and more support. And that was good. Nevertheless, Tegan could almost feel her bond to the Corps waning gently, naturally. It was odd, really. Once she had not been able to imagine ever wanting to leave; now it seemed as inevitable as the sunrise. This part of her life had been good, no doubt, and her friends would be life-long – but the rest of her life was waiting.

She was nearly ready for it now.


End file.
